Online systems often require users to enter various credentials before permitting use. For example, various financial systems can request a user identifier (e.g., an electronic mail (“email”) address) and a password. A user using a mobile computing device or other client computing device (“client”) enters the credentials and software executing at the client generally transmits the entered credentials to a server computing device (“server”) that is a part of a corresponding online system. When the user incorrectly enters the identifier or password, the server responds with a message that permission for use is denied. However, some users can become confused when permission is denied. For example, there is commonly no indication that the user mistyped the user identifier or password (e.g., to prevent guessing or “hacking”). Moreover, when the user enters the user identifier incorrectly (e.g., makes a typographical error), the user must nevertheless wait for the client to transmit the incorrectly entered identifier and password to the server and receive a response indicating that permission was denied. Also, a user interface that requests a user identifier and password is inelegant in such cases.
The drawings are not necessarily drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figures may be expanded or reduced to help improve the understanding of various embodiments. Similarly, some components and/or operations may be separated into different blocks or combined into a single block for the purposes of discussion of some of the embodiments. Moreover, although specific embodiments have been shown by way of example in the drawings and described in detail below, one skilled in the art will recognize that modifications, equivalents, and alternatives will fall within the scope of the appended claims.